


The Strength to Push Forward.

by Name_mp4



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name_mp4/pseuds/Name_mp4
Relationships: Y'shtola Rhul/Warrior of Light
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	The Strength to Push Forward.

Y’shtola watched as Nononzo walked past again, the sixth day in a row now, returning to his room in the Pendants. There had been nothing to do for a while now, as the Scions had been figuring out their next plan of action whilst the Crystal Exarch worked on finalising their return method to their home world.

Every day, Nononzo would walk past with a different weapon on his back, and a different set of clothing to go alongside it. One day he was a Warrior as he usually was, the next he returned as a Scholar, then one she knew well, a Black Mage.

With each day, he seemed to be getting more and more… tired? Maybe not exactly that, but definitely something similar. Today, he came back as a Warrior once again, but with a very noticeable difference. His clothing was slightly bloody, and he was trailing his axe behind him.

Now that I thought about it, a Lalafell carrying an axe roughly the same size as him was… sort of funny to think about. He was actually rather tall, as far as Lalafell height goes anyway. Slightly messy blue hair, always kept hidden underneath a hat, with a small bit of facial hair — a little moustache with a small beard, fitting for him.

I had to admit, I was actually sort of jealous of the axe he had. It was a really powerful looking weapon, the Minos Lux as he said it was called. Even though I had never used an axe or ever even considered it before, I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it. 

As he walked by today, he looked barely conscious, seemingly trying to avoid contact with anyone. Probably him trying to not have us worry yet again. I decided to tail him back to his room to have a talk about him and his habits of hiding his problems. I turned the corner that he’d just turned, but was caught off guard at what I saw.

On the ground was an unconscious Lalafell. One Nononzo Zezenzo. I shook my head and went to his side, picking him up to go to his room. We were right outside of the entrance to the housing area, and the attendant there was rather concerned seeing me carrying the unconscious Warrior of Darkness. I assured him that there was nothing to worry about, then asked for directions to his room.

Entering the room, I laid him down on his bed, then pulled the bedsheets over him. “He better not make a joke calling me a mother again.” I said to myself with a chuckle. Once he was comfortably in his bed, I moved over to the dining table he had in his room, taking a seat to begin some light reading whilst I awaited his recovery.

**_Nononzo’s view_ **

I slowly drifted back to consciousness, after what I could only assume was me passing out due to exhaustion. The first thing I noticed was that I was in my room. How? I had passed out in the middle of the Crystarium. I sat up slowly and rubbed my eyes.

“Finally awake are you?” A voice said.

I turned around, recognising said voice. Y’shtola was here. I was both relieved and scared to find this out, as that most likely meant I was about to receive a very big scolding from her because I was being too careless. She could clearly notice the fear in my eyes upon seeing her as she laughed.

“Relax, I’m not here to murder you. This time. Pull this stunt again and it may be a different story though, you got that?” Y’shtola said, a look on her face that said she was far from joking.

I nodded, then began to pull the bedsheets off. As I did, Y’shtola walked over and sat next to me on the edge of the bed. “You really need to take better care of yourself, you know. You’re lucky you passed out right near me, and not in the middle of Il Mheg or somewhere else.”

I looked away in slight embarrassment, knowing full well I was in the wrong. “Come now, no need to be sad. You’re allowed to slip up every now and then, all of us are already heavily indebted to you as it is. I wouldn’t dare ask much of you, save for one thing.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “And what would that one thing be?” Y’shtola looked over at me, sighing before answering my question.

“That you stop being so damn reckless. I may not be a healer anymore, but I still hate you going in alone so much. If I’m allowed to just ask one thing from you, can it please be that you be more careful? I’m not one for being sentimental ever, but I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we’d hate to lose you, not just because we’d be at an insane disadvantage, but because we’ve all grown to love being around you. The adventures we’ve all shared, both the ups and downs, were all amazing and… I want them to continue.” Y’shtola looked sad now after saying what was on her mind.

I lightly tugged on her clothes to get her attention. When she looked around at me again, I wrapped my arms (as far as they would go) around her and held her in an embrace. She didn’t respond at all, so I let go and looked up at her face. She was smiling again. “You know, I have seen what you do with that minion of yours.” My eyes widened. “Don’t think I haven’t seen you hugging the minion modeled after me.” I blushed upon being exposed. “What’s the matter, wanted to hug the real me that badly?”

I was blushing deeply by this point, and just nodded in response, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. “You could’ve just asked. I know I seem like I’d murder you if you asked, but honestly I wouldn’t mind.”

I looked over to see if she looked like she was joking or not, but I honestly couldn’t tell. I looked down again, still embarrassed. That is, until I was lifted off of the bed. It turns out Y’shtola had lifted me onto her lap. I looked up at her, and she smiled back at me. “I won’t bite.” Her saying that only made me more reluctant to hug her. It seems I made that obvious because she started it for me, pulling me in close against her.

“Y’shtola, please.” I tried to pull away, insanely embarrassed now.

“You asked for this.” Y’shtola said, not letting go of me.

I realised I wasn’t getting out of this anytime soon, so I gave up and returned the embrace. It felt nice, for the first time in a long time in this never-ending war, I felt safe. Being the Warrior of Darkness was no easy job, so I was doing all I possibly could to try and make it easier on everybody else, in turn making it easier for me. At least, that’s what I thought it’d end up like. Turns out it was far from that, with me ending up too tired to keep going.

No, I need to keep breaking my limits. What would happen if I wasn’t strong enough to take down a foe in time to save an ally? Images of my friends falling in battle flooded my mind, with me standing there unable to help. Although they were fake, I still felt an immense anger at them. Dream me started to lash out, trying to break free from whatever was suspending him in the spot he stood in. At least, until I was brought back to reality by a rather aggressive shaking.

“Wake up! You need to snap out of it!” I heard as my eyes opened. I looked up to see Y’shtola’s extremely concerned stare. “I don’t know how you managed it, but you somehow channeled your Inner Release inside your little dream there. What the hell was that even about?”

“I… it was a vision I had. I zoned out there, and all I could see was just… all of you, dead. The fury I felt because I couldn’t protect you must’ve built up too much.” I replied, leaning against Y’shtola in an attempt to calm down.

Y’shtola lightly patted my head. “It’s nice to know you care about us that much. But don’t worry, none of us are going anywhere. I can promise you that.”

“I’ll believe it when we’re out of here. I’ve already come close to losing you too many times.” I pulled away from her, walking over to the door. “I want to be alone for now. Thanks for taking care of me.”

“I’m not leaving yet. You’re not being left alone tonight. Even if that means that I sit at that table and make sure you sleep. After the stunts you’ve pulled, you are getting a good night’s rest.” Y’shtola said, a stern look on her face. I sighed and left my room, ignoring the shouting behind me.

I decided to relieve stress, that I would go and quickly slay some enemies out in Lakeland. Not too far from the gate, relatively safe. Just some random enemies, nothing much. No risk, no chance of being killed, no chance of anyone worrying about me. A nice, relaxing combat session. All was going perfectly well until I was victim to a group of bloodthirsty enemies, ready to tear me limb from limb. Surrounded, I couldn’t find a way out. Perhaps I had gotten too far ahead of myself.

**_Y’shtola’s view_ **

“I want everyone on a lookout for him, immediately! Contact the teams in Lakeland, he can’t have gotten far!” I shouted, folding my arms in concern.

“You know, Thancred is going to be questioning you a lot once we’re back safely here. Mainly asking if there’s anything going on between you two, stuff like that. Maybe the usual old ‘Dad of the group’ dominance assertion.” Alisaie said.

“Oh don’t get me started on Thancred. Never mind him, Nononzo is gonna hope he can mitigate the onslaught coming his way when I find him. I swear that idiot better come back alive, or else I’ll bring him back and kill him again myself.”

“Wow, rather extreme don’t you think? It’d be a shame if he were to die wouldn’t it? And let’s face it, he’d rather be hugging you anyway, wouldn’t he?” Alisaie said, a smirk on her face.

“And how have you found this out?” I questioned.

“The same way you did, caught him hugging his minion.”

I sighed. “He could get in so much trouble if word got out about that. More importantly, _I_ would get a lot of hate mail my way from all of his fans probably.”

“Oh, I forgot about that. The fan mail that Tataru has had to deal with. How the hell did they get the address for there anyway?”

“No clue. But we have more important matters at hand. Looks like your brother has something to say.” I looked over to see Alphinaud running towards us. He reached us rather quickly and stopped to gather his breath again, clearly left quite far behind him.

“They’ve found him. Out in Lakeland, as you expected. But he’s barely hanging on, we need to go now!” Alphinaud said, already turning to leave. I was already a step ahead of him, taking off at record speeds across the bridge between the Crystarium and Lakeland, where Nononzo was close to meeting his demise.  
  


**_Nononzo’s view_ **

Alternating between Overpower and Mythril Tempest was a tiring rotation, swinging my axe down to the ground, picking it back up and then spinning it around in a circle. But it wiped out all of the smaller enemies quickly, leaving one giant enemy between me and safety.

Channeling both Inner Release and Nascent Flash, I could feel my wounds closing quickly. Soon enough I felt healthy again, wailing on the massive enemy still. Suddenly it stopped attacking, charging up what I could only imagine to be a massive attack. Fearing the worst, before it came my way I activated Holmgang, preparing myself for a very heavy attack. The attack was a lot worse than I anticipated, breaching straight through my defenses, launching me backwards, almost unconscious on the floor. Faintly, I heard someone call my name before blacking out.  
  


**_Y’shtola’s view_ **

I rushed into Lakeland, fearing the worst when I heard a roar in the distance. Turning a corner, I saw a trail of blood, leading to what I wanted to see the least. At the end of the trail, Nononzo was there, passed out. Or at least I hoped he was still alive. “Alphinaud! Get to healing immediately!” I shouted.

“Already on it!” Alphinaud replied, casting a variety of different healing spells onto Nononzo. Meanwhile, I took up combat positions with Alisaie, Thancred, Urianger and Ryne. With all of us here, we stand a decent chance at taking the monster down. It seemed to be a rather dragon-esque monster. My suspicions were confirmed when Thancred barely dodged a fireball headed his way. Immediately, I began casting spell after spell, hitting it harder and harder.

Thancred and Ryne kept it occupied at melee range, whilst myself, Alisaie, Urianger and Alphinaud who had just joined the battle pelted it with spells from afar. “Do not worry, he is perfectly healed now, just unconscious. We’d do well to take this thing down first before trying to make an escape though.”

I nodded in response and channeled my energy, breaking my limits. From above, a meteor formed, landing directly onto the dragon’s head. It seemed to be effective, even if rather draining to pull off. The problem was that it didn’t seem to do anything to it at all other than put a dent into the dragon’s back.

Not long after, the dragon took to the skies, charging up what was quite obviously a strong attack. “Everyone, together at once!” Thancred shouted. We all gathered together, stacking up to take the attack with minimal damage. It was effective the first time, until it charged up another attack, which looked to be more deadly than before. There wasn’t a way out of this one this time. It was the end of the line.

The ground shook beneath us, almost feeling like a small eruption. Before I had a chance to look around, a small figure flew over my head, a flame following it. I recognised it instantly. Nononzo had jumped past us, axe in hand. “Witness… the Land Waker!” He shouted, slamming his axe into the ground with such a power that shook the land as much as the skill’s name suggested. We all almost lost out balance, struggling to stay standing. We lost the fight after three small mountains erupted from the ground in front of us. With all of us on the ground except for Nononzo, I felt… strangely invincible. Almost as if there was some unknown force protecting me.

The dragon launched the fireball at us, but none of us felt a thing after it hit us. The smoke cleared, and there stood Nononzo, axe on his shoulder, a burning flame in his eyes. I knew that sign before. That dragon was going down, one way or another. Nothing could stand in his way now, with such raw power backing up his every move, he swung at the now grounded dragon with such force that it stumbled backwards, screeching in pain. He pulled back to charge up another attack, and when he swung again, it was a beautiful display of colour. Flames flew through the air, engulfing the dragon in a fiery explosion of pure energy. With one final scream, it fell to the floor, blood flooding out from the fiery corpse.

I blinked in astonishment. He truly did know how to put on a show. It was an oddly calming sight, him staring at us with a flaming corpse behind him. He put his axe away, running over to us immediately. “Are you all alright?” He asked.

“Perfectly fine, I personally feel amazing after that. What even was that you did?” Thancred asked.

Nononzo chuckled. “A tank’s best friend, you should know it. Our most powerful limit break. The Land Waker, in a Warrior’s case. It’s better than a _Paladin’s_ most powerful limit break by a landslide, pun intended.” There was an odd amount of venom in his voice, as if he was targeting that at someone.

I slowly got up, regaining my balance. “Now if you will excuse me, I’m about to pass out.” I looked up to see him fall forward, collapsing to the floor again.

“Alright, who’s carrying him this time? I’ve already done it once today.” I said with a sigh.

Nobody responded, everyone looking between each other to see who would volunteer first. “Oh fine, I’ll take him. Someone else is taking his axe though.” I said, leaning down next to Nononzo, inspecting him quickly for any wounds. Finding nothing, I carefully picked him up and rested him on my shoulder. “You really are a handful aren’t you? No matter, I’ll make sure you get some rest.” I said with a content smile, happy he was safe again. I escorted him back to his room and left him in his bed, leaving for the night.

**_The next morning… Nononzo’s view_ **

I awoke immediately to a sense of deja vu, hearing light conversation in my room as I rose from my bed. Looking over, Y’shtola, Thancred and Ryne were sitting there at my table talking to each other. Thancred was holding my axe, admiring it. Ryne appeared to be doing the same, meanwhile Y’shtola had noticed me waking up and began to head over.

“Look who finally decided to wake up. Did you enjoy your half a day’s sleep?” Y’shtola asked.

“How long did I pass out for?” I asked.

“It is currently just after half past nine in the morning. I’d say we got back to the Crystarium at roughly… quarter to seven. More than half a day basically.” Thancred said, returning my axe to the closet and joining Y’shtola next to my bed.

“How do you feel? Any pains anywhere?” Ryne asked, completing the trio next to my bed.

“Well let’s see. I slept very badly, my back hurts, I haven’t eaten in ages. But overall, I feel great!” I replied with a smile.

“Any more of that attitude and I’ll send you to bed tonight with no supper.” Y’shtola said with a smirk.

“Yes mother.” I jokingly replied, earning a faint blush from Y’shtola and a raised eyebrow from Thancred.

“Well you’d better get up and get some food then. Come, we were about to go and have breakfast.” Thancred said.

I rolled off of my bed, putting my shoes on before heading over to the door, grabbing an apple on the way to snack on. Ryne followed me out, beginning to question me about yesterday’s fight and the limit break I pulled out to win it. Faintly in the background I heard a “You’ve got some explaining to do later.” From Thancred. Y’shtola was definitely going to have a bad time it seemed.

A few minutes later, we’d gathered with the rest of the Scions, plus the Exarch for some breakfast. It was relatively quiet the whole time, everyone seemingly tired from the battle the day before. At least, until Thancred spoke up finally. “Alright, Nononzo I have to ask, what _is_ going on between you and Y’shtola?” I almost spat out my drink upon hearing this.

“W-what are you talking about? There’s nothing to answer that question with.” I replied, a faint blush showing.

“That only makes me more curious. Y’shtola, any answer from you?”

“Well you already know one thing, about him and his minion. Put the pieces together, old man.” She said, making Alisaie chuckle.

“Ah, I see. So you finally confronted him about it, and now everything is awkward between you two?”

“Quite the opposite actually.” Y’shtola said, patting me on the head. “I may have been part of the reason he ran out yesterday, but I’d say everything is fine between us, isn’t that right Nononzo?” She looked straight at me.

“Y-yes, everything is fine between us. Better than before I’d say actually.” I replied, hiding my face.

“He’s totally under her control.” I heard Alisaie whisper to Alphinaud, getting a laugh and a nod in reply.

“Cram it you two, or I’ll send you to go take down a monster like yesterday’s on your own.” Y’shtola said with a stern stare.

“Y-Yes Y’shtola. Understood.” Alphinaud replied.

“To think, the so-called Warrior of Darkness has been taken control of by a mear black mage. Quite ironic if thy thinketh about it.” Urianger said.

“You know, I could just call on the pixies and make you go fight some gauntlet of enemies or something right now.” I said, shutting everyone up.

“Actually, with Y’shtola by his side I’d say they’re up there for the most feared duo to ever exist, what with Y’shtola’s major natural fear levels and Nononzo’s power as a whole. They could take down any primal or god, whatever you want really with just their presence really.” Thancred said.

“Alright that’s it. Thancred, Alisaie, Urianger. To the dungeons, now. You’re getting put through the wringer today. It’s time for the Twinning.” I said with a grin.

Y’shtola laughed. “Well, he’s certainly retaining his power levels in terms of bossing you around, I’d say.”

I gave Y’shtola a hug, to which she returned happily. “If I’m not back in time for lunch, blame Thancred and his slow tanking.” I said, earning an annoyed grunt in response.

“Oh, I’m sure with you as the leader he wouldn’t dare mess around. Take care.” Y’shtola said with a wave. I nodded and headed over to the Crystal tower, staff in hand. If I was going to make this a painful experience for them, running around as a Black Mage would make this a great time for me in return.

For the first time in ages, I felt safe. With Y’shtola at my side until the bitter end now, I felt like I had the strength to push foraward through the battles ahead. Fighting all the way through blood and tears, just to be by her side in the end. It was as good a goal as any, and I would happily fight for my life to reach it. Protecting my friends… No, my _family_ , is the most important goal to achieve now, and I will succeed or die trying.


End file.
